By JESSE GRAHAM
A BIRTHDAY balloon release for the late Josh Matthews at the weekend involved family and friends with generous donations flowing and more than $1000 raised for charity.
The balloon release was held on Saturday 18 January at Lillydale Lake, with around 80 people gathering on a hill by the waterline to remember their fallen friend.
The day would have marked Coldstream teenager Josh Matthew’s 18th birthday, and balloons were released at 12.12pm – the time of his birth – before the crowd sung Happy Birthday.
Josh died late last year from an asthma attack, and his activities in the community drew around 1000 people to his funeral in Mount Evelyn.
His mother, Nikki Thomas, organised the event for his birthday, which doubled as a fund-raiser for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF).
Mrs Thomas said that the event followed Josh’s active work in fund-raising throughout his life and the recent diagnosis of his aunt, Sue Contarino, with ovarian cancer.
The event raised $1201 through donations from the visitors to the balloon release, which will go straight to OCRF. Mrs Thomas, along with Sue’s husband Steve, will be walking the Kokoda Track around August to continue to raise funds.
The $1201 raised at the balloon release will augment roughly $5000 already raised for OCRF by Mr Contarino through an Everyday Hero page.
Mrs Thomas said she would like to make the event for Josh’s birthday an annual fund-raiser for different charities, and urged anyone interested in helping out to get in contact via the R.I.P. Josh Matthews/Turbo Facebook page.
